An artist's drawing shows what Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta will look like during an Atlanta Falcons game.

(AP Photo)

Atlanta wide receiver Julio Jones is close to signing "one of the major contracts in the NFL" with the Falcons, team owner Arthur Blank said on Monday. The former Alabama standout needs to use some of his new cash to buy a Mercedes-Benz, Blank added.

That's because Blank announced on Monday that the facility being built in Atlanta to serve as the future home of the Falcons would be called Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

In introducing Steve Cannon, the CEO of Mercedes-Benz USA, as a press conference on Monday, Blank said: "Our family office is less than 50 yards from here, and when I drove in and parked this morning, I noticed not all the cars in the garage were Mercedes-Benzs. That was a little disappointing to me. It's a challenge to you and your organization. I did introduce two of our great players here today, Matt Ryan and Julio Jones, and I know that Julio, who is about ready to sign one of the major contracts in the NFL with us, drives a different automobile. You might assign one of your great salesmen, starting with you, to him before he leaves today."

Jones is scheduled to play for $10,176,000 for the 2015 season - the average of the 10 highest wide receiver salaries in 2014 -- after Atlanta picked up its fifth-year option on his rookie contract. Without a new contract, the former Foley High School star could become a free agent when the league year ends in March, and even then, the Falcons could use their franchise tag on Jones to keep him for the 2016 season (at a cost of around $14 million). But Atlanta is trying to work out a long-term deal with Jones, and based on Blank's comment, the Falcons seem close to completing that task.

Already this offseason, wide receivers Dez Bryant of the Dallas Cowboys and Demaryius Thomas of the Denver Broncos signed five-year, $70 million contracts and T.Y. Hilton got a five-year, $65 million deal.

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The Falcons are expected to play their first game in the new stadium in 2017. Groundbreaking for the stadium was held on May 19. The naming agreement with Mercedez-Benz runs through 2042.

Just announced the new Mercedes-Benz Stadium together with Arthur Blank, Julio Jones and Matt Ryan. Great day! pic.twitter.com/R1r009n8zS

The stadium includes a retractable roof with a first-of-it-kind eight-petal design and a 360-degree HD video board that serves as a halo to the stadium. The web site for the stadium project says the video board will be the largest in the world at 58 feet tall and ringing a circle with a diameter of 1,100 feet.

The $1.4 billion stadium is being built south of the Falcons' current home, the Georgia Dome. Most of the Georgia Dome's current events, such as the SEC football championship game, are expected to migrate to the new stadium, which also will be the home of an MLS expansion franchise, Atlanta United, scheduled to start play in 2017.

Blank said the stadium had been awarded the NCAA Final Four for 2020 and would be bidding for the Super Bowl of 2019 and 2020 and the College Football Playoff's championship game for 2018. Blank said the FIFA World Cup also might be in the stadium's future.

The stadium will have a capacity of 83,000, with a variety of flexible seating plans available to the stadium's operators to tailor the capacity to the event.